French
Course overview – Year 8
French
Autumn Term
Theme: Routine and Health
Reflexive verbs
Health/ illness
Morning routine
TV
Clubs and outings
Spring Term
Theme: Youth Culture
clothes
designing school uniform
pocket money
new technology
music
Summer Term
Theme: Souris Paris
Paris
Directions
Describe a Hotel
Past and future tense
How to help
Vocabulary Learning is essential
Remember: Look, say, cover, write, check!
Ways to
a.
b.
c.
d.
support Vocabulary learning
Encourage your child to write the words out alphabetically
Missing out the vowels, then seeing if they can put the correct vowels back in.
Cut them in half, and then see if you can put them back together correctly and stick them up on a display board at
home.
Your child could record the words onto the computer or phone and listen to them on an iPod/a
device. Your child could make a computer database with the words or make MP3 files of
his/her dialogue.
You could encourage your child to use www.wordreference.com to check vocabulary or have a French dictionary available at
home.
You could also encourage your child to participate in our annual French Spelling Bee contest.
Do not let your child use Google translate or any other translation app, as this does not work and any homework created using
this will not be marked.
Your child will be assessed on 2 of the skills below at 4 separate times over the year.
1. Listening
Look out for BBC Language Learning Programmes and website and encourage your child to listen to them. Please see list of
websites on the French section of the VLE. SAM learning is also available to your child. Encourage your child to find out about
other websites, which will help to develop listening skills, from the subject teacher.
2. Speaking
Encourage your child to practise reading aloud/recording him/herself and practise dialogue used in class.
Practise with a friend – questions and answers/an interview.
3. Reading
Read items in the VLE. Learning Resource Centre has a variety of readers for all ages. Encourage your child
to use the local library and the VLE in school for extra materials. Use the Internet to find out about the
country of the language studied. SAM Learning has a variety of reading activities available by topic.
4. Writing
There are some excellent websites on the Internet giving valuable background and cultural information as well as linguistic
help. There are some useful CD Roms giving extra help for grammar and vocabulary.
Items you could purchase for your child to support their learning:
CGP KS3 French Complete Revision and Practice with audio CD - £14.99
CGP KS3 French Study Guide - £4.95
CGP KS3 French Workbook (with answers) - £5.95
ISBN: 978 1 84146 436 7
ISBN: 978 1 84146 830 3
ISBN: 978 1 84146 839 6
BBC Languages – www.bbc.co.uk/languages
Audio and video courses in a range of languages, essential phrases and beginners courses
Bourne Community College – www.eurobourne.org.uk/mfl_resources
An archive of language resources covering French, German, Spanish and Italian and organised by topic
Languages Online – www.languagesonline.org.uk
Interactive activities in French, Spanish, German and Italian and good for developing grammar
Linguascope – www.linguascope.com
Interactive activities in French, Spanish, German, Italian and English. KS3 = Beginner level / KS4 = Intermediate
level Log in details: User ID = “stmsch”, password = chanel5
Podcastmania – www.atantot2.co.uk
Supporting materials including podcasts, videos and other resources
MFL Sunderland – www.sunderlandschools.org/mfl-sunderland/resources%20fr%20ks3.htm
Resources covering a range of topics and including grammar, writing, audio visual and
worksheets
MyFrenchResources.com – www.myfrenchresources.com Worksheets and revision resources covering a range of
topics
MYLO www.hellomylo.com